It’s Time

OK.  I really need to get my ass in gear.  I have to stop sabotaging myself with poor food choices in the evening.  Honestly…I don’t know why I do this.  Am I really that bored?  Do I really need to keep myself occupied with something every waking minute of the day in order to keep my mind off what I could be shoving in my mouth?

On the bright side, I like that I wake up every morning and think that this is a new day with new opportunities.  I haven’t given up on myself 100%.  Not yet.   I have to make this stick.

Today’s food has been planned as follows:

• MEAL 1- 1/2-c Greek yogurt, 3/4-c organic granola
• MEAL 2- 1/2-c blueberries, 1/2-c ground turkey & egg white scramble
• MEAL 3- 4-oz chicken breast, 1/2 sweet potato, 1 bell pepper
• MEAL 4-2 turkey meatloaf muffins
• MEAL 5-tbd

I do know that my dinner won’t be jujubes, Reece’s pieces, or chips.  If I have to repeat a meal, I will repeat a meal.  I have plenty of turkey/egg white scramble and turkey meatloaf muffins made.

Although I’m not feeling 100% (I’m flirting with a headache and cramps), I will be going to the gym tonight.  I have chosen to work on legs since my last training session focused on shoulders.   If I can get through one day without effing up, I’ll be OK.  The first day is always the hardest.

Weigh-in this morning was scary, but it’s a starting point.

Photo Source

Friday Facts

1. Made a freshly squeezed juice this morning and didn’t end up drinking it.  I thought about how many “liquid” calories it would add to my day.  I’ve decided to have my drink for dinner.
2. I wish I got paid to take three-hour lunches and sleep while at work. I know someone who does this.
3. My evening will be spent doing laundry and cleaning bathrooms.  FML.  On the bright side, I will be pool side tomorrow at a birthday party.  I hope the weather is as beautiful as it is today.
4. I’m obsessed with this.  I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I need help.
5. I’m enjoying Oreo McFlurries a little bit too much.   Who can resist? Especially when there’s a McDonald’s right across the street from the house.

WIAW #4

Welcome to the fourth installation of What I Ate Wednesday.    I am happy to report that I didn’t trail of at the end of the day with off-limits, bad food choices.

MEAL 1

2/3-c gluten-free crunchy vanilla sunrise cereal, 1/2-c organic brown basmati rice, 1 hard-boiled egg

MEAL 2

2 rice cakes, 2-tbsp 100% natural peanut butter, 1 organic apple

MEAL 3

I forgot to snap a picture of my lunch, but I ended up eating a big old salad as follows:

• 1/2-can tuna
• 2-c romaine lettuce
• 1/4-c chopped cucumber (with peel)
• 1/4-c chopped tomato
• 1/4 avocado
• 1-tbsp hemp seeds
• 1-tbsp sunflower seeds
• 1-tbsp dried cranberries
• 1-tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1-tsp olive oil

MEAL 4

1/2-c Greek yogurt, 4 large strawberries, 1-tbsp Vida Grains

MEAL 5

1 serv maple-glazed salmon, 1/4-c brown rice w/ spinach and mushrooms

I had dinner fairly early in the evening, so I was a bit hungry just before bed.  I ended up having 15 almonds to help tide me over.

Good Food and Great Friends

Tonight was girl’s night out. The gang (me, my best friend, my sister in law, my cousin, and my sister) headed out for one final dinner before my sister becomes a mother for the first time. We’re all really excited about the event. She will be having the baby any day now.

We decided to try a new restaurant, Spoon and Fork.  Normally, we end up having pub-fare type food, but we were adventurous this time around.  Only my sister had been to Spoon and Fork and raved about the food.  I made reservations earlier in the week and it’s a good thing I did.  The restaurant was packed.  There was a line up when we walked in, but we had a table waiting for us so we were seated right away.

Spoon and Fork offers two choices of menu.  A dinner menu and an all-you-can-taste dinner menu.  We decided to try the all-you-can-taste dinner menu and sample a little bit of everything on the menu.  We were able to replenish our choices (or try new choices) for as long as we wanted or for as much as we could eat.  The key is to not over order though because there is an extra charge for anything that is left on the plate.  We managed to eat everything, so that wasn’t an issue for us.

I forgot to take a couple of pictures at the beginning of the dinner, but I did manage to take shots of the following:

coconut shrimp

These were so delicious.  I can’t even tell you.  We ended up ordering this a couple more times.

Thai spring roll

We tried a couple of variations of the spring roll.   I think we had vegetable spring rolls and chicken spring rolls.

vegetable fried rice

We had vegetable fried rice and pineapple fried rice.

pad Thai

We ordered two of these.

sushi

We ended up ordering two of these platters.  I’m not too familiar with sushi but I believe there was spicy tuna and unagi.  We even had avocado-wrapped sushi.

salad

If I’m not mistaken, this was the California salad which included some crab and avocado.  We also ordered mango salad (it was really good), but I forgot to snap a picture of that one.

After dinner, we attempted to take a group photo before heading over to Demetre’s for dessert.

We laughed so much here.  Seems like every picture we took was a bust.  We had this:

hang on, i’m coming

plus this:

hang on, i’m coming

until we finally got this:

After we laughed hysterically, we headed over for some dessert.  I have to admit I was stuffed but so looking forward to something off limits.

My sister had this:

I have no idea what this is called. There’s no online menu to refer to.

I had this:

hot apple cider

and

cherry cheesecake w/ whip cream

I did not eat the whole thing.   In retrospect, my cousin and I should have split one cheesecake instead of ordering two separate ones (she ordered strawberry cheesecake).

We always have a great time when we go out.  I love my group of girls.  We rock!

Casey

I love my dog.  Isn’t she adorable?  She’s part lab, part border collie.  I adopted her from the pound when she was just a pup.  She’s proven her loyalty and willingness to protect me when someone tried to break into our house a couple of summers ago.

The photo’s a bit grainy, I know.  It was taken with my BB.

Casey sitting pretty

Casey wearing (fake) pearls.

Casey looking for some lovin’

Isn’t she cute?  I know.  Who can resist that face?

Too bad she also does this when left to entertain herself.  Please try not to laugh too hard.

compost and garbage massacre

She’s lucky I love her!

WIAW #3

Welcome to the third installation of What I Ate Wednesday.   In typical fashion, my day started off pretty good until the evening when I slipped up.

MEAL 1

3/4-c organic granola, 1/2-organic rice milk, 1 hard-boiled egg

MEAL 2

organic banana, handful of almonds

MEAL 3

4-oz (plain-ass) chicken, 1-tbsp low-sodium ketchup, 1-c broccoli, 1/2-c basmati rice

I had to add the ketchup. Honestly, this is the most bland, cooked chicken I have ever purchased/ate.  I won’t buy this again. I bought it at Costco.  I’m planning to re-cook the remaining chicken I have to add some flavour and save it.

MEAL 4

2 rice cakes, 1-tbsp 100% natural peanut butter

I remembered to take the picture after I ate a whole one and started on the next.

2 turkey meatloaf muffins, 1-tbsp low sodium ketchup

I was still hungry, so I ate some turkey muffins. Forgot I had these in the fridge at work.  Again, I took a bite before I remembered to snap a picture.

MEAL 5

I really didn’t know what I was going to have for dinner. There was plenty of left overs, but I didn’t want the curried chicken in coconut milk and white basmati rice.  Instead I just grabbed a bowl of gluten-free cereal with the last of my rice milk (not even 1/2 c).   I forgot to snap a picture.

I should have stopped there, but later in the evening I had an Oreo McFlurry.  Could have been worse I suppose.

Gym Workout (Back)

Made my daily trip to the gym (love how it’s become a daily routine).  To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what I was going to work on; however, I knew with certainty that it wasn’t going to be lower body.   I’m still feeling the effects of Saturday’s lower-body workout.  I’m not complaining though.  I love that I pushed myself.

I decided to work on my back and followed a program I found online.  I ran through this workout last week, and I mentioned it in a previous post.  At the time, I couldn’t remember what website I got the program from, but I managed to find it the very next day.  I got it from Cut & Jacked.

I started with a 15-minute brisk walk on the treadmill to get warmed up a bit.  I was not planning to overexert my quads any more since they’re still recovering.

I then did the workout as follows:

• assisted pull-ups on TRX straps – 4 sets, 12 reps
• lat pull down (wide grip) – 4 sets, 12 reps, 60 lbs
• lat pull down (close grip) – 4 sets, 12 reps, 1 @ 60 lbs, 3 @ 50 lbs
• seated cable row – 4 sets, 10 reps, 80 lbs

I didn’t do the T-bar row because someone was using it at the time.  I thought I’d start the ab super set and then head back to the T-bar to complete the workout.  I did throw in some pull-ups on the Gravitron because I felt like I needed to do more.

I super set the following ab circuit:

• cable crunch – 4 sets, 15 reps, 70 lbs
• back extensions – 4 sets, 15 reps
• decline bench sit-ups – 4 sets, 15 reps

Once the ab work was done, I took another look at the T-bar and someone else was in the middle of a super set.  I didn’t want to disturb her (she looked too focused).  I figured I’d skip this machine and head back for some more cardio.  I was planning to do 30 minutes on the arc trainer, but two of the machines were occupied and the other two were “off”.  I couldn’t get them to turn on.  I looked around a noticed that a few of the other machines, i.e bikes, ellipticals, in the vicinity were “off” too.  I didn’t see the scrolling of red letters across the screen that I normally see.  Maybe there were a power issue.  Who knows.  I called it a day and left.

I had a “Fitness Competition Preparation Au Natural” after workout shake.

Photo Source: http://www.lyzabethlopez.com

I purchased this book which was authored by my boot camp instructor, Lyzabeth Lopez, and plan to write an in-depth review on it soon.

That shake was enough to fill me up.  I didn’t eat the dinner hubby made, which is just as well because he made WHITE basmati rice and curry chicken in a coconut sauce!  Kill me now.

Is It Just Me?

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from the gym.  While still in my car and looking for a parking spot, I noticed a questionable-looking man walking around aimlessly between the cars.  I hoped he wasn’t going to be a bother.  I found a spot, got out of my car, and headed into the store.  As luck would have it, he approached me and said, “Can you help me, I’m hungry…please…no one is helping me”.  I felt terrible and said, while still walking, “I’ll get you some food.”

I don’t have a lot of money to buy my own groceries, let alone someone else’s, but I did end up buying him a bag of bagels and a package of sliced deli meats.  I left the store and scrounged the parking lot, but there was no sign of him.  Once home, I had to throw the bag of bagels in the freezer because I had purchased a separate bag of bagels for my household (on top of the full loaf of sliced bread we already had).  *sigh*  I know my cost was less than $5 but that’s $5 I could have used somewhere else.

I dumped my grocery bags in the car, left my car in that parking lot, and headed around the corner to the organic grocery store.  I was on a mission to find “maple flakes”, so that I could make a breakfast recipe, Spicy Maple Pecan Kasha, I found on Bikini or Bust’s blog.

Once I made a few purchases, I headed back to my car and was approached by yet another questionable-looking man.  He stopped me and said, “Excuse me Miss, but I’m a type-2 diabetic and I need something to eat.”  I said, “Like what?”  Could he tell I was slightly annoyed?  Probably not.  He replied, “An egg salad sandwich and  drink”.  I let him know that I wasn’t going to give him any money, but if he wanted food I could give him something (I was thinking I would give him a banana from the bunch I just bought.  I wasn’t going to bring him back to my car where I had bagels and deli meats).   His reply was–and get this–”Oh no, it’s OK” and walked away.

Shit like that annoys me.  So food’s not good enough.  I see.  You’d like the cash so you can buy booze or drugs.   Obviously, he wasn’t as sick as he made himself out to be.  I’m a very generous and kindhearted person, but I don’t work at a dead-end job to be giving up my hard-earned money for drugs.

It was just an frustrating day for me overall.  I went to the gym and felt so bloated.  To say I blew my eating out of the water this past weekend is an understatement.  I still can’t believe I ate the way I ate.

My quads are still recovering from Saturday’s leg workout and I felt like they wanted to explode through my shorts.  My quads felt so fat.  It was a really weird feeling for me.  I’m not sure if it was due to sore quads or water retention from salt intake.  I punished myself through 30 minutes of quad-burning cardio.  I finished my workout with some ab work, but I mostly worked on my triceps.  Wasn’t up to much else.

I managed to keep my eating in check for the whole day…including dinner.

Photo-a-Day Challenge (May-Day 6)

My photo for today’s Photo-a-Day Challenge (May)

ME

Me!

Photo-a-day Challenge (May-Day 5)

My photo for today’s Photo-a-Day Challenge (May)

BIRD

swan

This photo was taken on Lake Ontario.  The swan is beautiful.  Too bad the water leaves much to be desired.